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Wool Ingeniousness

Take a look at the photo below.

Beer Mitts in action

Although this is a good looking Northwestern couple, I focused on the blue and red mittens they are wearing. See how the mitten encompasses the can, I am merely assuming it might contain beer. What an ingenious idea. Your hands are cold because you're holding a cold beer. How does a knitter go about solving this dilemma? By knitting a mitten that separates the cold beer from the cold hands with wool, of course!

This photo was sent to me by, Brittni, a resident of the Pacific Northwest. She knows my obsession with knitting, sense of humour when it comes to said knitting, and enjoyment of beer.  Brittni wrote, ¨Knew you'd appreciate the genius.¨ I have to love how downright practical these mitts are and the knitter makes only one mitten, not two, per person. Why hadn't I thought of this before?

Since the photo arrived I have been looking around to see if there's patterns for making such things. And to my satisfaction/amazement I find there are plenty who have worked out similar solutions to the cold hands/cold beer problem. There are patterns for beer mittens that are felted, first written in Norwegian then translated to English, knit using chunky yarn and ones using more delicate DK weight yarn. You'll find each pattern in order, here, here, here and here. They are all found on Ravelry and if you need further inspiration check out what others have done with the directions for each by inspecting the projects tab. Hundreds of different approaches can be found. And if all that fails you Etsy has several models to pick from as well.

Another inspiration has hit me.  What a fun idea and I just might know a few Northern folks who could put one of these mitts to great use. Xmas just isn't that far off any more.

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